


Preventing a Fall

by hardboiledbaby



Category: Sherlock Holmes & Related Fandoms, Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle
Genre: 221B Ficlet, Community: watsons_woes, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-02
Updated: 2014-07-02
Packaged: 2018-02-07 03:25:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 223
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1883382
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hardboiledbaby/pseuds/hardboiledbaby
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Moriarty was dead, but the threat to my life—and more importantly, the threat to Watson's—had not died with him. I should have left at once. I did not.</p><p>A missing scene from "The Final Problem."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Preventing a Fall

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the Watsons_Woes 2014 July Writing Prompts Challenge, prompt #1.

I should have departed immediately. Moriarty was dead, but the threat to my life—and more importantly, the threat to Watson's—had not died with him. Indeed, what remained of his organisation would only be more determined to seek revenge for the loss of their leader. 

I should have left. I did not. It was foolhardy and dangerous, but I could not leave, not without....

I watched as Watson returned, as he took in the evidence of struggle and footprints that led away and did not return. I watched as he slipped to his knees at the very edge of the precipice, and my heart stopped and I could not draw breath.

I had to bring down the rest of the gang, once and for all time. I needed to keep my dear boy in the dark to do it. I could draw the enemy away, keep him safe... but I could not spare him this pain.

Then he stood. He was bowed with grief, but he stood and I could breathe again. I should have known he would not— that is to say, my Watson is an old campaigner, and far stronger and braver than I.

 _Forgive me_ , I whispered. It was lost in the roar of the Reichenbach.

My fall was over before it had even begun. Watson's was only beginning.


End file.
